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Ed Snider's newest right-winger

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74 comments

Ed Snider's newest right-winger

POSTED: Monday, April 19, 2010, 9:32 PM

Tomorrow's news today:

Flyers’ owner Ed Snider has just picked up another right-winger.This one won’t help Philadelphia finally win another Stanley Cup, though.

The local sports mogul and long-time backer of conservative causes says he’s a major investor in a new cable TV network that may have an even more difficult task than bringing hockey’s crown back to Philly, and that is toppling the right-wing ratings champ, the Fox News Channel.

The Snider-funded RightNetwork — with a looser approach to conservative topics, including a comedy show and a jocular frontman in sit-com star Kelsey Grammer — is hoping to come to your cable box as early as this summer.

Snider — whose investment in RightNetwork is personal and not linked to his role as chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, which already owns the locally popular Comcast Sportsnet on cable as well as the Flyers, 76ers and the Wachovia Center — was not available for an interview.

But he had earlier posted a statement about RightNetwork.

“We’re creating a welcome place for millions and millions of Americans who’ve been looking for an entertainment network and media channel that reflects their point-of-view. RightNetwork will be the perfect platform to entertain, inform and Connect with the American majority about what’s right in the world.”

Snider, 77, a longtime backer of programs related to the iconic libertarian philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand, has been more public in his support of conservative causes in recent years. He was a major donor to a now-defunct group called Freedom’s Watch that supported the terrorism and Middle East policies of then-President George W. Bush, and his decision to invite then-GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin to drop the puck at the Flyers’ 2008 home opener drew a mix of cheers and boos.

Now, in entering the crowded and competitive world of politics on cable TV, Snider and his partners in the RightNetwork may have taken on a tougher mission than getting the 76ers back to the playoffs.

Ed Arke, who chairs the communications department as Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., said it will be difficult to convince conservatives to change the channel away from Fox News and its star line-up of Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity. “Fox in particular, is a very personality driven network,” Arke said. “They recruited star-power when they initially went on the air and had the benefit of having a stable of recognizable talent as they were building audience. 24/7 cable news can't survive on the promise something big is going to happen.”

Like any cable start-up, the prospect of success for a venture like RightNetwork depends to some extent on the quality of shows but also its ability to get the nation’s cable and satillite providers to carry it in a good spot on the dial.

As for programming, the proposed line-up on RightNetwork — as posted for a preview on its website, rightnetwork.com — is slanted more toward what could be called “conservative entertainment” and away from the newsier approach of Fox.

There is, for example, a right-leaning comedy show, “Evan Sayet’s Right 2 Laugh,” with standup comics making jokes about President Barack Obama’s teleprompter and buying an Obama coin “because any collector will tell you a coin is worth a lot more when there’s an obvious mistake on it.” There’s also a reality show called “Running” about six novice conservative candidates, and “Politics and Poker” with bombastic new-media star Andrew Breitbart.

The previews are introduced by “Cheers” and “Frasier” star Grammer, one of Hollywood’s best-known conservatives, who hails the network as “all that’s right in the world.”

There was considerable discussion yesterday — fueled by some confusion in initial news reports -- over whether Snider and the network would receive backing from another Philadelphia institution — Comcast Corp., which is currently seeking approval for its majority stake in NBC-Universal. Comcast Corp. issued a statement late yesterday that it is not an investor in RightNetwork and that it is evaluating the content of the new channel for possible addition to its channel lineup, as it would with any other start-up cable network.

Will Bunch @ 9:32 PM Permalink | 74 comments

74 comments

Comments (74)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:08 PM, 04/20/2010

"msl - I get new channels on my cable lineup everyday. What makes this news?" . . . . . . . Birdie, if your cable gets so many channels, why does your web browser force you to rely on Attytood for your news?

— montani semper liberi

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:15 PM, 04/20/2010

msl - my web browser no more makes me come to attytood for news than your keyboard forces you to accept the obvious point of this article - bash the right and pretend their is no liberal slant on TV.

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:18 PM, 04/20/2010

ATTENTION, Breaking development----- Larrydalliopolis is the new posting name for Longshanks, Samtheshampharoah, Sophiasamson or whatever his prior silly names were. And today he/she has an obsession with syphilis as this seems to show up in all posts to the Inky/People Paper Bird Cage Liner from this leftist drone.

— blackhawk90

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:22 PM, 04/20/2010

birdbrain11, when the person spending their own money are making their money off of me, I'd like to know if he's using the money to harm me. Now that people know that buying a Flyers or Sixers ticket is equivalent to making a donation to the Republikan party, they might choose to spend their money elsehwere as I did after he hosted Sarah, the dimwit, Palen.

— MikeP

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:32 PM, 04/20/2010

MikeP (see if you are a mature adult you don't need to resort to name calling)- You have every right not to spend a penny on the Flyers, Sixers, Comcast or any other Snider product. But exactly how is Ed Snider "harming" you? Unless of course both sides of an issue being explored in the media is "harmful". (He isn't forcing you to watch the Sixers is he?? even I would consider that torture)

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:34 PM, 04/20/2010

"bash the right and pretend their is no liberal slant on TV." . . . . . Wow, a liberal blog shows a liberal slant, call the media bias police!! Has it never occurred to anyone why the media is liberal?

— montani semper liberi

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:40 PM, 04/20/2010

"Wow, a liberal blog shows a liberal slant, call the media bias police!! Has it never occurred to anyone why the media is liberal?" Not a "liberal blog" today - this is a verbatim NEWS STORY from today's Daily News.

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:35 PM, 04/20/2010

Birdie, you're right. Reading it again, I don't see any leftist bias in the story at all.

— montani semper liberi

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:39 PM, 04/20/2010

No conservative knows why the media is liberal?

— montani semper liberi

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:42 PM, 04/20/2010

MSI, "liberal" and “elite” are code words for educated. Get it?

— Hamlet

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:46 PM, 04/20/2010

"But exactly how is Ed Snider "harming" you? Unless of course both sides of an issue being explored in the media is "harmful". . . . . Birdie, your question is valid, but it then behooves you to admit that the liberal media isn't harming anyone either. And why only two sides to any issue? Maybe that kind of two-dimensional thinking is what's wrong with political discourse today.

— montani semper liberi

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:34 PM, 04/20/2010

"Maybe that kind of two-dimensional thinking is what's wrong with political discourse today." This is rich coming from the person who votes for the "lesser evil".

— RG

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:07 PM, 04/20/2010

Left Wing Whack jobs will be watching jexactly like the watch O'Reilly, Beck and Hannity- 3 guys with MASSIVE ratings...

— Manny Trillo

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Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.

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